


Beneath The Willow

by secret_stories



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Death, F/M, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-22
Updated: 2014-12-22
Packaged: 2018-03-02 20:35:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2825294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secret_stories/pseuds/secret_stories
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set after MSF, after Beth is buried.</p><p>Was thinking about Norman's quote - 'If Daryl falls in love with you, he’s going to love you for the rest of his life'</p><p>Is based on the promo for the back end of season 5 when we see glimpses of a funeral under a willow tree and a drawing of a pretty cottage.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beneath The Willow

**Author's Note:**

> Obviously this is inspired by The Walking Dead and I don't own any of the characters!

They left him there as the light faded. What else could they do? The freshly turned earth sitting quietly in front of the small house they had chosen for her. Where she could rest finally, where she could just rest. The wind whispered through the willow overlooking the spot where she lay, a few stray leaves ghosting over the ground. It was a beautiful house. Quiet, sweet, unchanged. Just like her. Maggie had nodded when they found it; agreed there could be nowhere better. Now she would always be here, in this silent haven where the light danced through the trees and the wind sang through the grass. The only music she would hear now. 

They left him there in the gathering dark, eyes set on where she would forever be. Where she would forever be 18. The golden child, the quiet mother, the fierce protector of love and hope, the only one to break him. They left him there with her, as the golden and pink light fell on his stony face. 

He would not come. They all tired. No one wanted to leave him. More tears, more grief, angry shouts and quiet pleading. Still he would not come, and as the weather changed they had to leave him there. He knew where they were going and they knew where he was staying. What could they do? They weren’t safe out here, there were so many of them. So many mouths to feed, so many bodies to keep warm, so many spirits to hold high. So they left him there in the evening. 

Moving towards something, moving towards hope was the only thing holding them all together and with a flicker of light in the promise of sanctuary in Virginia, they followed Noah away from Beth. Away from the daughter, the mother, the sister, the friend. Away from Daryl. Away from the brother, the protector, the provider, the friend. 

None took it lightly, and there were many looks back, many stops and starts as feelings of panic and regret pooled in stomachs and lingered in eyes with the tears that threatened to fall. They left him there. 

It was ten years later that they came back. Ten long years of hard work, suffering and pain. Ten long years of joy and laughter and security. Ten long years of life until Maggie found her way back to where she’d left her sister to rest under the whispering tree. 

Daryl lay on the ground, the tall grass fluttering around him as he listened to the music in the wind. One leg up, eyes closed, his arm rested behind his head as his other lay on the warm ground beside him. Where she lay under the earth, where she made the yellow and white flowers spring from the ground around him every year. The house didn’t look as pretty now, windows boarded up and garden overgrown, it was much harder to see, harder to find. Walls had sprung up around the garden, high and thick with vines and flowers that had crept up over the years. 

It had taken a long time to make the decision to come, to visit the place where she had left her. Left him. To leave their sanctuary of so long was not a task undertaken lightly but lately it had consumed her. The past year, every waking thought went back to the quiet house, the flowing grass, silent archer kneeling on the grave under the willow. She had to go back. Of course he came with her, her rock, her love, her light, and with no walkers spotted outside of the walls in over 5 years, they made the decision. They left their haven and went to find the quiet house.

A shadow passed in front of Daryl’s eyes and he flicked them open. The high sun blinded him for a moment as golden hair and pale skin filled his vision, the light bright around a face full of blue eyes. Wisps of hair picked up the sun as the face moved, considering him. All he could do was stare; all he could do was stare blankly at the vision above him. He had never seen her, never seen her like he had seen his brother, goading him into moving, pushing him to carry on. But here she was, hovering over him in beautiful perfection. “Beth?” He eventually choked out, his voice hoarse from such little use. At his word, she moved away quickly and with a shout the spell was broken. “Momma! There’s a man here!” 

Daryl sat up hurriedly, taking in the girl who now had her back to him. He had got it wrong; it wasn’t her, not really. But that was her hair, in a scruffy ponytail, golden waves moving against her shoulders. She was so small, a girl, much younger than his Beth, just a child. She turned to look at him again as a voice, familiar and long forgotten shouted back. “Stay there baby, we’re coming!” He took in her small face, wary but excited. Her eyes were the same blue, yes, but her face was different. More angular, less round, her eyes thinner, her lips fuller. Such a beautiful little girl, so like her, so different. Then there she was behind her, Maggie, the woman Daryl had forced himself to forget so long ago, resigned to a part of his memory with the rest of his family he no longer allowed himself to linger on. Placing a hand on the girl’s shoulder, she looked down at him, sitting there in his bed of grass. “Daryl?” Then Glenn was there too, moving from behind the girl with a sad smile on his face and a hand extended. Daryl grasped it and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet before Maggie threw herself around him, and he couldn’t remember this. Couldn’t remember what it felt like to have someone’s arms holding you and he couldn’t move. She was sobbing in his ear and pulling back and looking at him before squeezing him again and the girl was looking at them both as her dad held her hand. 

Later, as night gathered and the girl had fallen quietly asleep on the faded sofa, Maggie made her way outside onto the porch where Daryl and Glenn sat in silence, watching the stars. She paused behind her husband and squeezed his shoulder. He looked up at her and nodded before standing and making his way inside to curl up with his daughter. Maggie took his place on the wooden floor and sighed heavily, leaning against the post, one knee up in front of her. They sat like this for a while, not saying anything, not needing to, before she broke the silence, knowing he never would. “I hoped you wouldn’t still be here. I hoped you would have found people, found a life. I waited for you every day at the safe zone Daryl, all of us did. You deserved a life, friends. We all missed you every day but you never came.” When he didn’t reply she carried on slowly. “I thought I came back to see her, to remember her, but she’s not here, not really. I feel her all the time wherever I am. When I see something good, when I feel happy, when I hear music. Then our baby girl came along and it feels like a bit of her is back.” She looked over at him and saw his eyes were closed and his hand had fisted against his leg. “She told me you said her name. When you saw her. Did you think she was her? Your Beth?” His hand unclenched and dropped to the ground. “I think it’s her sometimes.” She continued, “she’ll be doing the dishes or playing a game and just for a second I think it’s her. She has so much of her; she’s so good Daryl, so sweet and hopeful. She can’t sing though, had to get my talent there.” She pushes out a rough huff, barely a laugh. “Beth would have loved her, they would have loved each other. I told her so much about her Aunt, and about her Uncle. She wanted to meet you so much.” Still he stayed silent, eyes now open staring into the night. “Why didn’t you come Daryl? Why did you stay here? She’s not here Daryl, she never was, she’s in the sunshine, she’s in the wind, she’s inside us.” Lifting a hand she pressed a fist to her chest. At this, Daryl turned and fixed her with his piercing blue eyes, an unreadable expression on his lined face. “That little girl” he grunted out “what’s she called?” Maggie smiled sadly “Beth”. 

The next dawn saw Daryl standing in the dappled pink light under the willow tree. With no wind to make it sing, its weeping branches were quiet, waiting, expectant. He closed his eyes and listened to the birds singing, to the distant river and breathed out deeply. Turning, he saw the small family standing on the porch, bags packed, waiting, expectant. Walking towards them he nodded subtly. “Come on” he gestured with his head towards the gate in the wall. 

Without a glance backwards they walked towards the road, to the car parked in the distance. 

They left her there as the light grew, where she rested under the quiet tree, in front of the over grown cottage. Where she slept beneath the earth and made the flowers grow. Where she whispered through the wind and sang into the rising sun. He left her there because she wasn’t there. Not really.

It took no time at all to make the decision to leave, to leave the place where he’d buried her. Where he’d buried himself. To leave his mourning of so long was not a task undertaken lightly but he found the pain falling from his shoulders in a way he hadn’t thought possible. He looked to the glowing sun on the horizon and smiled, as the small blonde girl fell into step beside him and took his hand. “Will you tell me stories about my Auntie Beth?” He left his pain and his grief and went to hear another song.


End file.
